Robo-Veep

Even the tabloids know the truth: In the grocery store today, I saw the Weekly World News, with the cover story: CIA Leak Reveals: Dick Cheney Is A Robot! There's really nothing more I can add. No online link, unfortunately.

Giggle of the day

For various reasons, I've been called in by a publisher to help out with tech editing, etc. of a book that's gone south. No, I won't say the title, author, publisher, topic, and/or series. But here's a choice quote, which might go a long way towards explaining exactly why said publisher decided they needed me:

This just in: I was infected by a seriously harmful Macintosh virus while working on this book; it took out so many system files that I had to wipe my hard drive clean and start over. The only way a Macintosh virus can be triggered is if a user clicks on the file containing it. A few years ago, there was no such thing as an RTF virus, but the fancy new text program on the Macintosh (TextEdit) uses fancy RTF as its native document format, and some bright person got the idea to make the text program able to run executables. Anyway, RTF files can carry viruses now. I learned the hard way by clicking on some help files I'd downloaded from the Internet.

Accuracy level of the above: 0%.

My own personal guess is that the author did run into AS.MW2004.Trojan, aka the I'm-too-dumb-to-use-a-Mac trojan.

Winning Argument

John Moltz points to a new blog, Winning Argument, and says we'll like it. He's right. Here's a quote from there:

Most of the political debate in this country does not occur behind podiums but in backyards, bus stops and ball parks. The blog is an effort to give people - or at least those who agree with me - the arguments they need to convince others that they're right. If you disagree with the opinions expressed here, make your case in the comments section.

As I've said, everyone has a right to an informed opinion. Here's a good place to inform yours.

Matias Tactile Pro Keyboard

This is me, typing on my new Matias Tactile Pro Keyboard and checking it out. So far, I'm not sure, but that's normal as it usually takes me a few days to get used to a new keyboard.

First impressions:

• It's even clackier than my old MacSense keyboard
• I'm thrilled to be getting rid of that one, as some of the keys (particularly w and d) would often stick and I'd get multiple letters—particularly nasty when typing Cmd-w.
• The keys seem closer together than on my old keyboard, which I know I'm going to like in the future (I have small hands) but it means that I'm mistyping a lot at first.
• It has a nice feature where all the special characters, such as accents and punctuation, are also imprinted on the keys. That's going to come in handy.
• I like that the keys are gray printed on white; it's going to be interesting to see how well they last. My old MacSense keyboard was white printed on black, and several of the characters had worn or nearly worn off. These appear to be more durable.

More later as I get more of an opinion.

Conspiracy theories run amok

You find the damndest things on the Internet... but in this case, I didn't find it on the 'net originally, I found it in the local Safeway parking lot: a van claiming that Stephen King killed John Lennon (with help from Reagan and Nixon, don'cha know), and the URL LennonMurderTruth.com.

As a lover of all conspiracy theories, I had to check this one out as soon as I got home. Yowza. High weirdness, to say the least.

Weblogs.com debacle

I've read much of the hoohah over the recent weblogs.com debacle, and I was going to keep quiet, figuring that there wasn't any point in me piling on... until I realized that, so far as I could tell, nobody was pointing a finger in the direction that I thought it should be pointed.

(Aside: If you're wondering what I'm referring to, you can read more than you want to here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.)

Imo, the blame should be laid, 100%, on UserLand. They fucked up. They dumped 3000 weblogs on a guy (self-described as being in poor health) with inadequate hosting and inadequate support. There were many things that they could have done; dumping the entire problem in Dave's lap was about the worst choice they could have made. But hey, it let them get rid of an expensive problem, without having to deal with any of the bad rep that goes with it, right?

Wrong. I think that UserLand should have to deal with the bad reputation that you get when you treat people like this.

(Aside: yes, free hosting gets you all the support you pay for, but dumping people's sites with zero notice is not good. And what part of Cool URIs don't change isn't clear?)

So, spread the word. And if you're in a position where a UserLand product is a possible fit for your needs, make sure they know why you aren't choosing them as a vendor.

Henckels Birch Cutting Board reviewed

You say, who cares about a Henckels Birch Cutting Board? I have to say, some people care very, very much. Go read the reviews. Really. I promise. (Via Making Light, which you really ought to be reading)

You Gotta Be Kidding

From the Department of Dopey Ideas, or perhaps the Department of One Born Every Minute, we have Endless Echoes, a service that will take a message you leave on a voice mail system, and transmit it via radio straight up to nowhere, for a mere $25/minute. It's allegedly so you can send your messages to deceased loved ones, or send other messages that your intended recipients will never hear. I had no idea that dead people even had radios, much less that they are listening to the exact frequency that these people use.

My new Entourage Ebook

I'm pleased to announce the publication and availability for sale of my new ebook, Take Control of What's New in Entourage 2004. For a mere $5, you too can learn about the new features in Entourage 2004, and how to best take advantage of them. If you're an Entourage user, check it out. If you know an Entourage user, please tell them to check it out.

The ebook includes a $5-off coupon for Michael Tsai's award-winning SpamSieve utility, bringing the effective price of the book to $0 for readers who wish to enhance Entourage's spam-filtering capabilities with SpamSieve's highly accurate Bayesian filter.